About Me

Monday, 2 March 2015

Is Much Of Higher Education Redundant?

In my teens
the structure of university and other post school forms of education and
training were essentially based on the thinking and the experience of the
period 1918 to 1939 between the wars.
WW2 moved things along and 1940's legislation made changes for
improvement but it was still conditioned by that period.When our young
ones were going through in the 70's and 80's the changes under way reflected
the thinking of the 50's and into the 60's about the idea of education, its
purpose and the economic structures that existed then. But the economy was then undergoing major
changes.By the time
the politicians of the late 1990's, under Labour and into the beginning of the
21st Century came to hold power their ideas, beliefs and thinking had been the
result of the turmoil of that 70's and 80's period and the disconnections
involved.More was that
the various elements in education, which had been strong and influential before
then had become major vested interests with their own agenda's and far more
aggressive in both promoting them and demanding that government should follow
them rather than the other way round.We are now
told, for example, in the debate about tuition fees in universities and the
related issues over student debt, that the existing higher education should be
protected because of its economic importance.
Other parts of education are subject to endless meddling and
reorganisation, notably in the key area of job training in basic occupations.However, some
of higher education is work related, in medicine and engineering, science and
such like requiring related provision and teaching. But a good deal of it does not need what
might be called the "hardware" but other sources of information and
study.When looking
back through history what is striking is the abilities and work potential of
many teenagers and how far they were an integral and needed part of the work
forces in many spheres. Now a high
proportion of the 16-21 age groups have been taken out and large numbers are
appointed to deal with them.This certainly
impacts on the employment and unemployment figures. Also money movement adds to the figures
without much in the way of visible production.
At the same time as so many are removed from home we have large tracts
of housing taken up by students, very many leaving behind empty bedrooms. Has nobody connected this element of the alleged
housing shortage to the mass education of the 18+ group?A new
development is the provision of learning in "Moodles", see Wikipedia
taking advantage of recent advances in communication technology. This has been taken up by many of the
existing providers as a field of expansion.
But in many areas of study it is little realised it could replace the
old systems.As for those
sectors of education where a great deal need major facilities for practical
forms of study or work many of those at present are funded by outside
interests. A good deal of scientific
research is bought by commercial companies in terms of grants and
contracts. This could be taken a lot
further and these areas of study taken back into working life and to the
companies and others who are doing funding.There will be
scope for some existing universities and colleges to offer a limited range of study
on the present and old basis but now for large areas of study and gaining
qualifications increasingly vast sectors could move on to study and above all
real work on a much more intensive basis by other means.This could
almost bring to an end the present morass of financing of both the institutions
and the students. The debate about
student loans and debt is not just about the small change, it is about the much
larger question of the radical changes in structure and function in post 16
education and training.At the other
end of the age scale, I find it remarkable that the hi-tech gear and
information systems out there enable me to do far more in far less time than
ever before.If the
government does want to spend money it could do so by opening up all the
scientific and academic journals to free use instead of the sometimes steep
subscriptions now being charged and digitising library content.Imagine, the
British Library and National Archive free and open for use online.